reevesr1

Hey Brett, Awesome. Hope you don't have to move overseas!!

Bought my Olympus on eBay, directly from Olympus in California (a refurb), $6.00 shipping. Full factory warranty. They did charge GST, which made it essentially a Canadian purchase, so no customs, duty, whatever. Price+GST+Shipping and done. I just did a search, and Olympus is selling them now for around $290.00 (last several completed auctions in this range). Here is one completed auction: http://cgi.ebay.com/OLYMPUS-Stylus-770-SW-...1QQcmdZViewItem Oh, and I used Steve's Digicams as well.

Brent, I have and love my Olympus 720SW shock and water proof camera. I know MissinTheBow has one as well and loves it. Anytime you want to take it for a test drive, let me know. I'm so confident in it's waterproof and shockproof abilities that I will loan it to you even knowing your history with fragile gear Edit: As to the viewfinder, every waterproof camera I have tried has issues. Believe it or not, the SW is the best I have tried. But that is not all that great of an endorsement.

CAODC 2008 Forecast CAODC's well forecast for 2008. Rig utilization at 34% for the year, compare with 69% this year. Number of wells in the 13,000 range, lowest since 1993, I think. Royalty review did not contribute directly to this, I don't think, as these numbers would have been compiled before the announcement. Just gives you an idea of how weak 2008 was going to be BEFORE the royalty review. Does not bode well for 2009. Don't go spending those Ed Bucks just yet. Doom and gloom enough?

No chance of that happening. This is one of those cases where history is a perfect predictor of future performance. Any publicly traded company that sees a significant time period of low activity will lay people off, or transfer them out. No political way to do otherwise. Everyone realizes there may be lost opportunity costs later when the activity comes back, but there is no way to calculate that and managers are judged on what they do today, not 2 years from now. Harsh, but almost unfailingly true. Also, there is certainly still NG drilling happening in Alberta.

Don, I have lived in: San Diego, Ca, Pocatello Id, Orlando, FL, Chicago, Ill, New Oreans, La, Houston, Tx, Waikiki, Ha, Grande Prairie, AB, Edmonton AB and now Calgary. Now, my personal economics have certainly changed in that time frame from just starting out to 23 yrs of employment. I certainly cannot speak to the rest of Canada, but the standard of living here is as good as anyplace I've ever lived. Now, many of the issues you raised above, at least in Calgary, are directly attributable to explosive growth. The problem with reigning in growth is: what happens if you reign it in too much? Because the opposite of explosive growth is WAY worse. I agree that ups and downs ain't anything new. They are going to happen regardless of royalties. I'm just saying that the Premier needs to be very careful with what he is messing around with. Raising royalties in an environment of lowering activity feels like a dangerous mix to me. Hydro, If he truly is doing this for altruistic as opposed to political reasons, then he has my respect as well. If he is convinced that the long term gain is worth the short term pain, then again, at least I can respect the opinion, though I may disagree with it. But I get the feeling that this is more politically motivated. If not, what was up with the political speech last night? He knows what he is going to do, but took the opportunity to milk it for a couple more news cycles. Face time, baby!

Don, Easier to say if you weren't, or won't be, one of the 80,000. Just because Alberta survived it once isn't really much of an argument for risking it again. And my bet is not all politicians who had things named for them really did that good of a job. Don't know anything about Lougheed as I'm not from here, so the comment isn't directed towards him. Just a general observation.

You carry that hole around with you? My bet is that you won't need to pass that info around. But I've lost on bets before.

Brent, One of the things that has happened over time in the US is the tendency to try to get tvisitors to pay extra taxes on whatever the city or state can think of. Rental cars, hotels, etc. in an effort to delay increasing taxes on the residents. A pretty distasteful move in my opinion. It is the responsibility of the residents to fund standard services, not visitors. To defer the cost to visitors is nothing more than political expedience. When tourists come in to fish or whatever, they spend lots of money on things other than fishing licenses, particularly those who stay for extended periods of time. I think the only reason you should charge a visitor more for a license is if it legitimately costs more to process the visitors license. They shouldn't be expected to contribute more to the resource than a resident. Nor should they contribute less. And just because BC does it stupid doesn't mean Alberta needs to follow suit. Back to the original post-- If it were shown that installing aeration would increase size/lifespan in stocked lakes, I would have no issue paying more on my license.

I did not see anything about what the Premier said tonite, but I gather it was nothing. Wonderful. He probably has to sleep on it. He hasn't had much time to think about it, don't you know. Edit: Oh, and MTB, you can't go overseas! Who will show me where to cast? Who will stand between me and Max and make us both look taller?

There you go Lynn, you started it. Boobs, boobs, boobs........

Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap......I didn't think of that. Greg, Brian..I understand the Tarpon fishing in Florida is OUTSTANDING this time of year. Please go there right effin now and let us know how it goes. I understand there are many last minute seat sales on. Can't wait to hear the report! No need to waste your time fishing the bow. Move along now!!

Chidders, Not sure I would have figured it out. Good on ya.

Awesome guys! I feel sorry for the Steelhead next year!!

Wonderful. Where were you last year??

They are not required to do so, but I don't think that any state has ever gone against the popular vote for electoral college votes. You seem a bit cynical there Gary.

So here is the process: Each party has several candidates who compete in a swimsuit contest.. Ok, so they compete in a series of "primaries" or "caucuses" in several states to determine how these states will vote in each parties "Convention". Kinda like a series of popularity contests. However, once the first vote of the convention goes down, each state can change their vote to whatever candidate they wish. (Big states have lots of delegates, small states not so many). So each party ends up with one candidate who then face each other (and possibly a meaningless 3rd party candidate) in a general election. Most votes wins right? Well, not really. The election is really 50 separate elections in each state. Each state has a number of "Electoral College" votes. These votes determine the next president. So it is possible to loose the popular vote and still be president. It happened to Bush (and some would say it's happened twice to Bush), but that is a whole other topic. So there is election civics in a nutshell. If I explain more, it just gets more confusing. Colbert is running a joke candidacy. He is actually trying to register as a candidate in both parties for the North Carolina primary I think. Very funny stuff.

Hey, I think I have the other half of that one! (before anyone starts, it is not Ladystrange's. At least, I don't think so!)

Weedy my man, its not too often one gets to laugh hysterically on a Sunday morning. I think I scared my kids. By the way, they were CANADIAN women, and as such, superior to any American male in hockey skills and sense. And I was inebriated as well, so that one is a draw. I guess I'm just fortunate no one from Edmonton was there. I'm sure a resident of the "City of Champions" would have taken me down. I don't really love myself, though I do like myself quite a bit

Sorry to break in here, but this post is about me playing hockey, and any other direction I choose to take it in. Since I started the post, only I am allowed to hijack it. (this rule only applies to posts I start. However, I give myself permission to hijack any post I like). Glen, Do you think that white puffy stuff would work as an inner-lining in your ice fishing chilli glove thingys?

Ladystrange, Don't know how to break this to you, but most of the hockey players in Dallas are from Canada. Some are from Europe. Modano is the token American (sorry if I spelled his name wrong). If I was sarcastic, I would ask why they have football in Canada. A few make work projects for Canadian offensive linemen?

Gee, sounds great and all, but I have already done the big Egyptian guy thing. Fell last year trying to spray ice on my son while exclaiming "look, I can do a hockey stop". Feet flew out from underneath me, and I hit the ice basically horizontally. It took my breath away and scared the kids (are you hurt daddy? Why can't you talk?). Once I could breath again, I assured the kids I was OK and tried to get up. This is when I realized my ribs were either cracked or broken. Turned out just really badly bruised. Two or three weeks later, I was fine. And that, ladies and gentlemen, ended my skating, and hence my hockey career.

Here is my predictable response, which serves my best interest 1. Predictable response, serves their best interest 2. Predictable response, serves their best interest 3. Predictable response, serves their best interest 4. Predictable response, serves their best interest I could add Politically motivated in 1, 2, 3 and profit motivated in 4. I don't necessarily believe any of them.

Nice tie in to previous posts. Well played, you have my respect (as if that's worth anything!) Just so we are clear, I'm more cut than the guy on the left.

Where did the 3 yr number come from? Not doubting, just curious. I agree that would seem pretty quick for billion dollar projects. I totally agree that Oil Sands will be it for the future, and it will be produced. But today is Natural Gas. And I do have another question: I always hear people say that you need to protect the resource for the future. What makes people think that is not happening now? Oil and gas have been produced from Alberta since the early 1910s. Population in 1910 370,00 plus or minus. Today, the population is 3 million, plus or minus. Seems like the industry has been protected pretty good so far, or is there an industry I am missing here? Edit-and I couldn't agree more on the upgraders.